Santos Escobar advanced to the finals of the United States Championship Invitational by defeating Butch, Grayson Waller, and AJ Styles in a Fatal 4-Way match on the July 14th episode of SmackDown. Last week, Rey Mysterio defeated LA Knight, Sheamus, and Cameron Grimes in a Fatal 4-Way match to qualify for the finals in the tournament.
The protégé and mentor faced each other in the tournament finals last night on SmackDown. However, the match didn’t go as originally planned.
Santos Escobar delivered a Suicide Dive on Rey Mysterio during the match. After a commercial break, the ringside physician checked on Rey. Referee Jessika Carr then informed the ring announcer that Rey could not compete, and Escobar was declared the winner.
As you can see in the following video clip, the WWE Hall of Famer’s head hit on the floor while falling backward.
Prayers up for @ReyMysterio 🙏 pic.twitter.com/1yobuNhgLG
— WWE on FOX (@WWEonFOX) July 29, 2023
Fightful Select reported that Rey Mysterio is legitimately injured during the bout. They added that Escobar was supposed to get a clean victory over his mentor. They further noted that a backstage segment involving LWO had to cancel due to Rey’s injury.
“Fightful sources confirmed late Friday that Rey Mysterio’s spot on Smackdown was not storyline as originally suspected. We’ve learned that Santos Escobar was actually supposed to win the match clean, and an audible was called and the match was ended. In addition, there was a backstage segment follow-up that was planned that had to be nixed.”
Stay tuned with The Spotlight for more news.
